Senior Portrait Session at Kerry Park and Parsons Gardens

I am a bit late in getting these photos online, but in my defense I have been so busy taking and editing photos that I have not had nearly enough time to deal with blogging.  But hey, at least I’m doing it now!

I met up with Helen at Kerry Park on an overcast and rather chilly day in early November.  Helen is a senior at University Prep, and I had photographed one of her classmates during the summer at Woodland Park.  Definitely different conditions for this session, as it must have been ~30 degrees colder.  But this actually worked out to be a good thing, since Kerry Park is so popular that it can be a mob scene on a sunny day.  Since this was a Saturday there were still quite a few people in the park, but the tour busses were apparently taking the day off which made a BIG difference in the number of potential photo-bombers.

Though it was a bit cold, the overcast skies were just about perfect for photos.  Plenty of nice soft light, and no bright sun to give Helen a bad case of the squinties.  We worked our way around Kerry Park, getting plenty of photos with Seattle Center and the Space Needle in the background, as well as playing with the sculpture in the center of the park.

Once we felt we had done all we wanted at Kerry Park I took Helen on a walk down the street to nearby Parsons Gardens, a very pretty little “pocket park” hidden at the end of Highland Drive.  Mostly only known to Queen Anne Hill residents and photographers, it is a great place for photos, though on this day it proved to be a bit on the muddy side.  Pretty much what you’d expect of Seattle in November.  But still a few neat places available to add to our portfolio of the day.

Just across the street from the park is a fantastic viewpoint that looks out over Magnolia and Puget Sound to the Olympic Mountains.  Due to the cloudy conditions the mountains were hiding, but the view over the sound made for some nice photos.  Then we moved to the very cool old concrete stairway that borders the viewpoint and played with the possibilities there for awhile.  Finally we moved back up to street level for some more photos, this time trying to make use of the last of the fall colors that were still showing in some of the trees, as well as the leaves that had already fallen to the ground.

Following are some samples from the photo session, I hope that you enjoy them!